Horribly Taboo
by VampiricAphrodite
Summary: After Cody's elimination, he goes to Playa des Losers and realizes everything is not what it seems... And that love is never predictable. Supernatural fic. NoahxCody. ON TEMPORARY HAITUS.
1. Arrive

**Genre: Filled with slashy Romance, glazed in Supernatural, and sprinkled with angst!**

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My breath is coming short and my heart is beating so fast, it should be screaming. Everything inside me yells-- "Get out! Get out! Get out!" I try to move around, but the cast is holding me in place. I can't escape the wheel chair. I'm at the bottom of a lake in a wheel chair! I almost break free, but sea weed gets tied around my wrists and my left leg. _Oh, I'm going to die!_ I'm thinking, _This is how it ends! I never should have gone on this freaking reality show!_ I hold my breath, trying to devise a plan. I struggle, then start bleeding out of my wrists, they're wound so tight to the sea weed.

Well, now that I'm bleeding, I'm sure I'll die. Even if I make it to the top, a shark will smell my blood... I try to think of a way to stop bleeding and get to the top. I can't kick my legs, because I'm in a full body cast. I can't really do much but hold my breath and stay still. Or struggle and scream, but then I'd just bleed more.

I think I'm crying-- hard to tell while I'm underwater. I think about how much my dad would yell at me for crying-- he was totally into gender stereotypes and stuff, so the fact I was so short and scrawny disappointed him. Then, the fact I was pretty bad at sports, and preferred taking apart one of my many laptops and studying it to throwing around a football... I'm pretty sure my dad wishes he had another son, I'm such a disappointment...

I'm going to die, I shouldn't be tearing up over my parental issues! Well, I was also crying because my lungs were burning... And, hel-[i]lo[/i], I'm going to die. Who doesn't cry when they're staring death in the face? Well, other than somebody suicidal, of course. I mean, I may get a little angsty sometimes-- who doesn't? But I'd never feel sad and alone enough to kill myself. I feel so sorry for those people. Interrupting my inner-ranting, I see something...

It's coming toward me. It looks like it's struggling, like it sucks at swimming, or like it just can't go fast enough. I figured it was a shark. A shark that couldn't come fast enough to take a bite out of me. My head leans sideways and I stop struggling. I'm so freaking going to die. At least I'll pass out before having to go through the shark eating me. My last consious thought is whether or not I'll go to heaven.

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"Please, Cody, wake up...." somebody whispers, a voice that makes me shiver, after trying to make me breathe. I sit up slightly and cough violently. Judging by the pain in my wrists where I'm bleeding, I know I'm not dead. Whoever saved my life hugged me tightly. Still half-passed-out, I run a hand through his long, wet hair. I smile and sigh, loving the way he feels against me... Wait-- _he?_

I pull away slightly, knowing my pale skin is heated with a blush. I'm such a freaking spaz! I was running my hands through a _guy's_hair! What's wrong with me? I mean, what the fu--

"Cody! You're alive!" Izzy runs over and pulls me back into my wheel chair, her crazy smile showing her happiness.

"H-hey, Izzy." I stutter out, even though it hurt every inch of me to speak. Then I notice who saved me, "Noah?"

"What? Are you okay? Are you..." I had never seen so much love and caring in that guy's eyes. I mean, I had seen arrogance, sarcasm, bitterness, anger, jealousy, boredom... And... A few times, even though I was pretty sure I'd imagined it, lust. But never had he ever _cared_ about anything. Especially not other people.

"Yeah, I think..." I answer, groaning at the pain in my lungs. Noah helps me up into my wheel chair and pushes me inside. The inside of the place was much nicer than Camp Wawanakwa. It made the apartment I lived in with my dad look like an absolute garbage dump.... Okay, despite my best efforts to keep that place clean, I know I'm still not saying much.

"So.... How long do we stay here?" I ask, the pain healing already. I'm totally a quick healer-- I'd probably be 100% healthy again by the time the next challenge started, which would be pretty messed up, since I was eliminated...

"Do you always ignore people who save your life?" Noah's mono-tone-like voice cuts off my thoughts. I notice his voice always sounds bored.

"Oh..." I blush again (stupid pale skin), "Sorry... Thank you! How long do we stay here? I wasn't really listening."

When we go into the elevator, Noah answers my next few questions, sounding like he would rather be anywhere but there.

"I think until the season ends," he answers.

"Are there challenges here?" I ask.

"No."

"Do we have to wake up a certain time?"

"No, it's a vacation resort."

"Do we have room mates?"

"Yes."

"Who's my room mate?"

"Big suprise, it's me." he says sarcastically.

"Seriously!" I demand.

"It's me." he sounds offended.

"Oh... S-sorry..." Noah is staring at me, his head tilted slightly, dark brown hair dripping water onto the elevator floor. The hair that, just a little while ago, I was running my fingers through like I owned it. Seriously, what had come over me?

Noah's eyes widened when they trailed down to my wrists. One of them was bleeding still, just a little. I thought it looked gross, but Noah was staring at me like... Like it was the exact opposite of gross. It strikes me as weird, but I just assume he's gawking at my full body cast. I mean, even I do sometimes.

"Cody, maybe you should wipe that blood away?" he says, his voice still bored and mono-tone, even though I see his eyes clouding with something I couldn't identify. And I think he started clamping his teeth together. I raise an eye brow. Noah leans on the elevator wall, away from me.

"Yeah, I should."

I decide to ignore the strange way he's acting. I mean, he just swam in that incredibly cold water to save my life. Of course some one would act strange after that. Any other place, I would have wiped the blood off on a wall or something. But even the elevator is fancy, all red and gold, so I dispose of the blood the only way I can. I lick the blood off of my wrist. I swear I hear Noah moan softly, but then I decide it's just my imagination. But I'm totally not imagining the way Noah is glaring at me.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" I ask, and Noah just shakes his head, clamping his eyes and mouth shut.  
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Please R&R.**


	2. The Begining

**Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama Island, or any of the characters. I do own the plot of the fic.**  
**I think I forgot this in the last chapter: Fanfic rated for blood, swearing, and some sexual themes. Rating may or may not go up, it depends.**

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The room is nice, just like the rest of the place. It has two beds in it, a TV, and a mini fridge. Way better than those crappy cabins-- they wouldn't even let me have my laptop! I mean, I knew it said that in the application form, but I thought 'No Technology' was a small sacrifice for finding my dream girl.... And find her I did. She just, you know, wasn't all for the Codemeister. But, hey, she wants Trent. I guess Trent is better than most of the other guys. As long as she's with someone she loves... But still...

I sigh in response to my thoughts. "What's wrong?" Noah asks. I blink when I realize he's staring at me. Why would he be staring at _me_? I mean, he must have something better to do that just show me around. Or maybe not. The most interesting person here is Izzy, and she can be pretty creepy. Who knows how weird her room looked?

"Nothing..." trying to change the subject, I ask, "Have you been living here?" And he nods. I find that odd. The place doesn't look lived-in at all. In fact, other than the laptop on the desk and the stack of books at the foot of the bed, the room might as well be unoccupied. There are no pictures of family and friends, no posters of actors or singers he likes, no signs of Noah's individuality what so ever. Nada. Zero. Nothing.

I walk (or rather, _roll_ in my wheelchair) over to the stack of books and pick up the one of the top stack. "_Greek Mythology_". I pick up the next one, which reads "_The Historical Tale of Atlantis_". The next is _As Simple As Snow_ by Gregory Galloway, then _Amandine_ by Adele Griffin...

"A mythology book, a book about some Goth girl who disappears, and a book about friendship between two girls with emotional problems?" I say, because I've been assigned to read these books by one teacher or another, "Why do you read these?"

Noah shrugs, "They interest me," seeing I wanted him to elaborate, he said, "I like things that are... different."  
"What'cha mean by 'different'?"  
"Wouldn't you like to know." he smirks and sits on his bed. There's an awkward silence as I contemplate what the heck that could mean.

"I think the Greeks had a weird history." I say, pulling over the Greek mythology book, trying to end the awkwardness. Certain pages in the table of contents are highlighted. I flip to the first one, "Aphrodite?"

"What? I don't seem the type to be interested in the goddess of love, lust, and beauty?"

"It's just weird is all." I put the book back, "Hey, speaking of weird, where's Izzy?"

"Probably in her room, doing crazy girl things." he shrugs.

"Can I go see her?"

"Am I stopping you?" he arches one eyebrow without the other. Cool. I wish I could do that.

"No, I just... Well..." I kind of want Noah to come with me to Izzy's room. She scares me, honestly. She's freaking crazy! I was just wondering what she was doing. I can be curious like that. But that doesn't mean I'm not scared.

"What, do you need me to protect you?"

"No," I try to sound cool and manly, "I don't need protection from anything! I can brave the scariest thing you can think of!"

Noah seems to stifle a laugh, "Okay, whatever you say, honey. But I've seen some pretty awful things."

I realize I've moved my wheelchair _way_ too close to him. So close, our faces are practically inches away, and I can't help noticing he's smiling seductively. I know, that word makes it sound like he's coming on to me, but it's the only word I can think of. I gulp. Noah kind of laughs, his hand brushing mine lightly. I wonder how the mood changed so quickly-- weren't we just talking about books? Something totally normal? Now everything feels odd.

"Awful things like..." I signal for him to move on "Just... Things," I think he means to sound casual, but it sounds more like this is a subject he doesn't want to talk to me about.  
"Can't you tell me?" Noah looks up at me from under his bangs. _Oh my God,_ I think, and my heart skips a beat. I suddenly realize how good-looking Noah is.

How didn't I notice him before? How didn't I see his gorgeous, long hair and chocolaty brown eyes? The look in said eyes makes me blush. It's an intense look, like he's studying me, looking me up and down. If he had been a girl, I would say he's checking me out, his eyes looking the same as they did during our kiss on the Island, right before he screamed. I swallow, knowing the only way to describe it is... is... lust. A boy is lusting me. A guy, a dude, a male, is looking at me (_another boy_, mind you) like he wants to jump my bones. And guess what? I.... kind of like it.

"No. I can't." he says, putting his hands on mine. My heart flutters. I start shaking.

The look in his eyes is doing more for me than Gwen ever did. Some part of me wonders what it would be like.... be like for him to... to touch me. Not just touching my hands, but I mean to /really/ touch me. Like, all over. I suddenly want his hands to go up my arm. Just for a second. Just one second of him on me. My eyes trail down to his mouth. The same curious, confused part wonders what it'd feel like for him to kiss me. My breath comes faster. I imagine him leaving a trail of kisses across my whole body. Touching me, feeling me-- Shit! What in hell am I thinking? I mean, what the fuck? Was I seriously just wishing he would jump me? Was I seriously just thinking about getting, um, _intimate_ with another boy?

Embarrassed and failing to think of anything clever to say, I clear my throat and ask, "Weren't you taught about personal space as a kid?"  
"Weren't you taught not to approach bears in the woods?" he leans back to his normal, half-crouched sitting position, crossing his arms. My hands ache, and it's like my body is screaming for him to come back.

I can't tell if he's joking or not. Was he just fucking with me, or did he feel the way I just felt? He breathes deeply and shakes his head, grabbing a book on Atlantis and opening to a random page. Just like that. Just like that, he's totally normal again, reading a book. Like none of that sexual tension just happened. I don't like the idea of being in "sexual tension" with another dude, but that's the only word that can fit what just happened. My eyes narrow in frustration. I'm about to ask him what just happened, but he speaks.

"What?" he asks, looking up. All my former confidence and anger bursts. That happens a lot, actually. I'll be mad and ready to yell at somebody, then something happens and I'll become all mousy and guilty, like I really _did_ just explode with anger, even though I didn't._ Stupid kind nature_, I curse myself.

"N-nothing." I squeak. I notice there's a CD player with a few CDs on the desk. There are a bunch of artists I don't recognize-- Tool, XTC, The Runaways, Korn.  
"I see you're stalling by looking at my CDs?" he sighs, "Fine. I'll come with you to Izzy's room."  
"Uh-huh," I look at the music, curious. I look up at him, "Can I listen to some of your music?"  
"I--" he stops, looking into my eyes, "Okay." he smiles.

I smile excitedly and continue looking through the music. I decide to listen to the Korn CD. Before listening to the band, I faintly hear Noah say "So cute." I look at him, my head tilted to the side in confusion like Lindsay's always is after Chris explains the challenge. Was he talking about me? _No_, I decide, _No he isn't... He can't be._..

I think I understand the words to the song, until the lead singer goes into a huge... Strange part. It's like he's speaking in tongues. Noah has some weird musical taste. Most of the song's titles imply they're about sex, murder, suicide, dark themes like that. But there are a few that sound nice... Maybe not "nice", but not as dark. It's not just one genre; there's Gothic rock, emo, pop, a whole bunch. The pop music is even a little evil! Mostly from the eighties and nineties, which explains why I've never heard of the bands before.

Once the song is over, Ezekiel, the home-schooled boy, runs into our room. He had been eliminated for making those sexist comments about girls, I remember. I remember talking to Noah about it afterward, actually.

_We were standing outside the cabin after everyone was sent out of the Dining Hall. We had been standing right next to each other. I barely knew Noah, but I decided to make small talk anyway. Make a new friend, you know? "What's with that guy? Who says stupid things like that? And when his team is mostly girls!"_

_"Actually, there are more guys on their team than girls. So I'd say unless one of the guys suddenly has a crush on Courtney, or suddenly hates Ezekiel, he's safe. Women are useless anyway." Noah looked up absent-mindedly into the sky and shrugged._

_"Useless? Not to be shallow or anything, but they're hot and sexy!" "What's useful about that?" Noah leaned against the railing. I furrowed my brow in confusion, "What do you mean by that?"_

_"I simply... don't... like women, all that much." he shrugged._

_"Uh, okay..." a sudden thought occurred to me, "Are you saying... That doesn't mean... You're not saying you're, uh, queer or anything, right?"_

_Noah crossed his arms, "I didn't say that."_

_"So you're straight." I said._

_Noah gave me that cynical smirk of his, "Whatever helps you sleep at night, honey."_

I hadn't even remembered that moment until now... Funny how seeing one person can make you remember certain things. You know that phrase 'You just answered one question, and raised a dozen more'? That's how I feel now, minus the 'answered a question' part.

"Noah! You need to help me, eh!" Ezekiel's heavy Canadian accent brings me back into reality.  
Noah groans, sounding like he's helped Ezekiel before and is sick of it, "Again?" then he calls over his shoulder, "I'll be right back, Cody." Once he's left, the room feels weird... A really bad weird, like the whole atmosphere's shifted. I want nothing more than to go get Noah and drag him back here. I want his presence, I want to be just plain _with him_ more than anything.

I roll my wheel chair over to the bed that is now mine. That feeling never happened before around a guy. I get plenty of these feelings around girls, but not guys! Whenever I see guys, it's like, whatever, you know? But around hot girls, (and now Noah) I'm starting to get that fluttery feeling in my stomach and-- Gah! I know I'm not making much sense, but nothing makes sense anymore! Is this what reality shows are always like? Is there something in the water up here in Canada? Or am I just thinking about this too much? Maybe not thinking enough?

I shouldn't have these feelings around Noah! _Okay, Codster..._ I tell myself, _It's your over-active imagination again. Remember when you thought your neighbor killed his sister and buried her, then you dug up the grave site and realized it was a cat? It's like that. It's not like you want to kiss him or anything. You're not gay. Think about how hot Gwen and Courtney are, or Heather, or Lindsay!_ I sigh. I'm too injured and tired and confused to get into the bed, so I just lay on top of the blankets. I try so hard to forget Noah. So hard. I decide to count the amount of times I'd slipped and fell in the cafeteria this year at high school, just to get him off of my mind... I get up to about twenty three before I am asleep.

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**It's not too hard. Just click the button. Write, even if it's just one sentence. And I post the next chapter. It's the circle of fan fiction.**


	3. In the Sunshine

**I'm going to skip a few days so I can get to when Cody takes his cast off. If I wrote out everyday at Playa des Losers, you would get bored, lol.**  
**Disclaimer: I don't own TDI, because I fail at life. =(**  
**WARNING: You should know by now this is NoahxCody. You don't? Well, it's NoahxCody. Now you know.**

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"Get up, get up, get up, get up...." Izzy is saying over Noah, who's still laying in bed and sleeping even though it's noon.

"Go away, Izzy!" he grumbles, throwing the blankets over his head. I stifle a giggle.

"It's the afternoon! Get up, I'm bored!"

"Wake up Cody, then."

"But he's injured! I can't have fun with an injured person!" she glances at me, then at Noah, "A broken arm I could work with, or even a comma, but not a full body cast!"

"Go away." he says, attempting to go back to sleep.

"Hmph. Fine." Izzy left, mumbling some unintelligible.

"How do her parents deal with her?" Noah asks, to no one really, but I still respond.

"Maybe they're crazy, too."

"Maybe." he looks up at me, and I notice his skin is an even lighter shade of brown than usual-- like he's going pale.

"What's wrong? You look pale."

"You can't be pale if you're not caucasian, Cody."

"Oh. Right." realizing he's trying to change the subject, I ask again, "So what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just tired. And starving." he says.

"I could go get you something...."

"No." he says harshly.

"But--"

"I'm _fine_." he says.  
I don't believe him, I feel honestly concerned for his health, but I still comply with an "Okay..."

I wish I could leave him alone so that he could sleep in peace, but I'm in too much pain to go outside. The sun would probably fry me, like it usually did when I tried to tan. I make a mental note to try to tan when I'm out of my cast, then decide to just take a nap again. It's not like I can do much else. Even though I'm a morning person, I feel completely drained of energy. So drained that, as soon as I close my eyes, I'm asleep again.

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Finally, I could take my cast off! I left the Playa des Losers infirmary, smiling and walking-- more like strutting-- to the elevator. The Codemeister is back, baby!

"Cody? Come with me to my room?" I turn to see Beth.

"Okay, sure." I shrug. I was planning on telling Noah first about my cast, but I was cool with Beth, too.

While we're walking to her room, she seems anxious and excited. _What's that about?_ I wonder. We come to her door and step inside, where I hear a few clicks. I turn around to see Beth's locked the door, like she doesn't want anyone to walk in. _O-kaaaay_, I think, _Weird..._ Beth sighs dreamily, grabbing my hands in hers. Her hands are sweaty.

"I don't have a roommate." she said.

"Yeah. I know."

"So, you, um, wanna be my room mate?" Beth asks in a voice I think is meant to sound husky.

"Well, Noah's my roommate. Has been since I was eliminated." I realize I sound dreamy, like Noah's the only, uh, _roommate_ for me.

Beth sighs, "Cody... I do not want for _us_ to be like this!" she squeezes my hands.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I wish to have real relationship with you! I do not want to have to hide it!" she sounds like a character in a bad soap opera.

I pause, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Is it not obvious? Can you not see? Our love, our feelings, our _passion_ for each other!"

Is she talking about me? She thinks _we're_ in a relationship? She kissed me on the cheek, once. I talked to her once, maybe twice. And she /likes/ me, actually thinks we have some sort of 'forbidden burning passion' bull crap? I could never even be interested in her. I mean, she's nice and all, but I could never be attracted to her like I am to No-- Gwen. Definitely Gwen. Nobody else. She smiles excitedly. "What are you--"

I'm cut off by Beth attacking me. She starts kissing my face, touching me all over. I try to push her off. I don't want this. I don't want _her_. Beth is way too insistent. She has no clue how to do anything sexual, and honestly? Neither do I. Nothing about this feels right. It's gross, how her nose starts running in the middle of it all. She starts drooling, too, and making these disgusting noises. I finally shove her off.

"Beth, what the hell?" I exclaim.

"What's wrong, baby?" she asks, and I run out of the room. I run immediately to the bathroom to clean myself off. My mouth is filled with the taste of snot and onions.

I lean over the toilet and throw up, then start brushing my teeth. I gargle four times with mouth wash. I know, I'm awful. But it seems like her taste just can't disappear. Once I feel clean again from the sloppy kiss, I go to my room.

Noah's just sitting there, reading. _Of course._ I think, smiling a little, _All he does is read and sleep and listen to music. Doesn't even eat._ I realize I'd never seen Noah eat anything. In the morning, when everyone was eating breakfest, I never saw him. Or Izzy, or Eva, for that matter. Well, I'd heard Izzy and Eva's room had a mini-fridge. His doesn't.

I snap out of my thoughts when I feel him staring at me. "Do you always burst into rooms, then stare blankly at the wall?" he asks.  
"Oh, uh," I clear my throat. I can't remember why I came here.  
"You got your cast off?" he asks, standing up and coming toward me. I nod my head in response, not trusting my voice to work right. Acting on a very strong impulse, I hug him tightly, burying my face in his hair. Butterflies flutter crazily in my stomach... I realize Noah seems kind of uncomfortable with my hug.

"Um, Cody, you're crushing me." he says, making me pull away. No wonder he seemed so uncomfortable. Oops.

"S-sorry, I was, um, just really, uh, excited.... Hehe..." I let out a nervous laugh at the end-- that annoying little 'hehe' chuckle I make that signifies I'm either in pain, nervous, or uncomfortable. I tried and failed for years to get rid of that habit.

Noah's staring at me, head tilted to the side, just the way it was back when we were in the elevator. Remembering that, I say again, "Thanks for saving my life."  
"Cody, you've said that about twenty-seven times."

"Well, I mean it. Really. I owe you one." I say, sounding light and casual, despite the fact fireworks are going off inside me.

"You owe me nothing. I don't need anything from you." he says, but he starts eying me hungrily. Hungrily? Was I imagining that? _Yes_, I decide, _Most definetley. It just seems like he's looking at me like I'm some kind of dessert._

"Okay, if you say so." I shrug.

Noah blinks, "Um, right." he closes his eyes and looks away, mouth tightly shut again. I giggle, and he gives me a questioning look from over his shoulder.

"This is like what happened in the elevator. You stare at me, I say something stupid, then you look away from me and shut your mouth and eyes real tight."

"Have I done that before?" he asks, eyes still closed.

"Yep!" I nod, smiling.

Noah laughs slightly, "Cody..." he says simply.

"What?" I ask, "I'm too quick-minded for ya?" I like it like this! I like the funny, easy conversation going on between us.

"No, I just think you're cute." he smiles, finally looking at me again.

"What's so cute about me?" I ask, still giggling.

"Everything," he pauses, "You're adorable, like puppy or a kitten."

"I'm no kitten!" I say defensively, even though I'm still smiling. It would have been uncharacteristic for him to say, if not for the fact I knew we were just joking around.

"Yeah, whatever." he smiles now. I bet we look like two smiling idiots.

"I can be bad." I try to make my voice all dangerous-like, but I think I failed.

"Yeah, Cody. You're real bad. Bad to the bone."

"You're darn right!"

I realize too late that he was being sarcastic. He laughs and ruffles my hair. I'm so caught up in the moment I just smile and let his hand trail down to the side of my face. I'm too enticed by his cold/warm hands to focus. Noah's touch is like dry ice-- his hands are so cold, they burn me. Maybe that's not completely true, though, because touching dry ice for too long can seriously injure you. Oh, well. A metaphor's a metaphor. Or would that be a simile?

"What's the difference between a metaphor and a simile?" I ask accidentally out loud.

"A simile is a metaphor that uses the words 'like' or 'as'," he looks confused, "Why would you ask me that? It's kind of random."

I shrug, not really knowing why I asked that, and he moves his hand off of my face. I frown. "What?" he asks.

"Nothing." I say, pushing him playfully.

Then I realize what we're doing. We're flirting. I'm flirting with Noah. Noah is flirting with me. Two guys, two males, flirting. Was I making this up? That tends to be a question I keep asking myself. _Am I making all this up?_ In an attempt to distract myself, I look out the window. Well, I _try_ to, but I'm noticing for the first time that it's blacked-out. I can't see the sun, or anything outside for that matter. Just blackness. Noah notices me looking at the window, but he doesn't mention anything. I go over to the door, about to leave, but suddenly stop and turn around.

"Noah?" I ask.

"Yes?" he looks up from his book.

"I..." I feel like I should say something. Should I?

"Yeah?"

"Wanna go outside with me?" I feel really stupid for asking it, I don't know why, though.

"No!" he says quickly, like when you watch a horror movie and scream for the dumb girl not to go downstairs when she hears the chainsaw. "I just _really_ don't like sun." he adds when he sees my face.

"Okay," ironically, I love sun, "Well... Guess I'll see you later."

"Okay. Yeah." he opens his book again, takes out a CD player and starts playing XTC. Why doesn't he have an iPod? Everyone else seems to.

It's a reasonable question, but I decide not to ask. He wouldn't hear me through the music anyway. I turn around and leave, going into the elevator and down to the main room. I look around. There weren't a lot of others here. I remember that someone was going to be eliminated soon. I'd have someone else to talk to. I hope it's Gwen, so I can try to enchant her with my moves. Or maybe Owen-- he's fun. Sighing, I step outside into the sunshine for the first time in who knows how long.

* * *

"Hey, Cody!" Katie and Sadie yell and squeal in unison. They were holding hands, looking extremely happy to be together again.

"Hey, girls!" I say, winking at them.

I sit on a chair near Eva, who's working out. Her MP3 player's loudly blaring some rock song, so loud I can hear it even though she's got on earphones. It sounds like that band Noah listens to, Korn. After about twenty minutes, she notices me sitting there and turns off her music, "What?" she asks harshly.

"Nothing, I'm just tanning." I shrug, trying to hide how much she scares me.

"Tanning?" she snorts, "You're turning pink."

"Am not! Besides, a tan'll show off my awesome abs," I smile widely. She shakes her head, turning back on the metal band and continuing to exercise. I decide to go talk to someone else.

"Yo, Cody! Go long!" Tyler calls, throwing a football. It smacks me in the eye.

"I-I wasn't ready!" I yell, picking up the football and throwing it to him. It hits _him_ in the eye.

"I wasn't ready, either!"

It pretty much went on like that for a while. Throw, smack, excuse for not catching the ball. Throw, smack, excuse.... Throw, smack, excuse.... Eva catches the football and rips a hole in it with her teeth, "Oops!" she says.

"You know," I say, "I strongly doubt anybody would accidentally puncture a ball with their teeth."

"Aww, come on, babe!" Tyler says, "Why ya gotta play me like that?" Eva walks over and bends his arm behind his back.

"Don't call me babe!" I decide to just stay out of it.

I notice Izzy scarfing down hamburgers at the buffet table. And by 'hamburgers' I mean 'raw hamburger patties'. That seems both gross and unhealthy, but she explains to me that she's actually _supposed_ to be eating meat like that, because... Okay, I can _not_ follow anything this crazy girl says.

"Ugh, fine!" I hear someone say, "But Izzy owes me!"

"Noah!" I say with way too much excitement. Even _I_ can picture my tail wagging at this point.

"Yay! You're outside!" Izzy runs over and wraps Noah in a death grip, "Now all of my friends are out here!"

"/Let. Go./" he struggles to get out of her grip, but she just hugs him tighter.

I can't help but feel small trickles of jealousy. _You want to hug Izzy. _the logical part of me says, while there's another part saying _You want Noah!_ The two voices yell at each other, having a weird argument in my head. I swallow past the dryness in my throat when Noah sits next to me at the buffet table, squinting when the sun shines on us.

"Why do you hate the sun so much?" I ask.

"It's uncomfortable." he says through his teeth, like he's in pain.

"I love the sun! I'm getting a tan, you know."

"Is that why you're pink?"

I frown at him. "I'm not pink. I'm... light tan. Sort of."

"Yeah, Cody. You're dark and I'm pale."

"With how much you avoid the sun, you should be."

"One of the very few perks of not being caucasian," he smiles dryly, "Usually there are just downsides."

"Melodramatic, much?" I laugh, but Noah doesn't.

"I don't think discrimination is very melodramatic, Cody." he rolls his eyes.

"No one is racist anymore." I say, shrugging.

"You don't know a single white person who's said, as you would put it, the 'N-Word'? You don't know a single person who was cut off while driving and said 'Must be a Chinese driver'?"

I stop laughing. To be honest, my dad had said both those things. A lot. "Exactly." Noah says.

"Not everyone is bad, Noah. You can trust _some_ people."

He scoffs, "Maybe _you_ can. But there are certain things no one here can know about me, honey."

"Even me?" I tilt my head to the side and make my eyes big, batting my eyelashes. Even though I'm not really trying to do anything, a smile he was fighting breaks onto his face. He winces out of the sunshine.

"Yes, even you. No matter how adorable you are."

My insides warm when he compliments me like that, smiling at me, eyes completely focused and melting into mine and-- damn it! I need to stop feeling this way around him. I finally realize Izzy's smiling and staring at us. Noah even seems surprised to see her, and that was weird since he always seemed to be more aware of his surroundings.

"What?" I ask, trying to move away from Miss Crazy.

"You two are _such_ a cute couple!" she gushes like she's talking to the Jonas Brothers, or whoever else girls like.

"We aren't a couple, Izzy!" Noah says, suddenly moving a little further away from me, "We're just friends."  
There's a pause.

"Sexy friends?" Izzy arches an eyebrow. Can everyone do that but me?

"Leave!" Noah and I yell in unison. Izzy spins around in her backless chair, "You guys'll have to talk about it sooner or later! Ha ha!" she laughed like a wild maniac. You don't need to explain what she's talking about. When you say 'It' to me and Noah, we know you mean when he kissed and spooned me back on the Island. But she _did_ raise an interesting point. And I wanted to talk about it. I wanted to ever since the dodge ball challenge. I was going to talk to him about it then, but he had been eliminated.

"Maybe we _should_ talk about it," I say in a whispery voice to him. I notice he's ordered some blue drink. "Is there alcohol in that?" I ask.

"Probably." he smirks at me.

"Aren't you underage?"

"Aren't you under-height?" I laugh, even though the joke's on me. Noah laughs too, a warm and slightly deep laugh that wraps around me, and we're back to that easy conversation between the two of us. I smile, wishing I could move my chair closer to his without it seeming totally obvious.

"Awwwww, you guys are so cute when you're flirting!" Izzy giggles. So he _is_ flirting with me! I wasn't imagining anything. She'd seen too!

"Izzy, shut up." Noah says, leaning away from me again. She looks like she's going to speak, but then she notices a raccoon over near a tree.

"Ooooh! A raccoon!" she says, running after the creature. I don't even want to know what she's going to do to it.

"Izzy's crazy." I say.

"Yes, but she's surprisingly intelligent." Noah says, "And she's nice, usually. And her fashion sense isn't as horrible as some the other Britney wannabees around here."

"Hey... You like her, don't you?"

"_What?_" he asks in disbelief.

"You like Izzy. You _like-like_ her!" I laugh. I know I'm wrong, but the look on his face is priceless!

"Ugh, ewww! I would never! Me and _Izzy?_ Disgusting. Revolting. Impossible." he shudders like I just suggested he watch Chef Hatchett take a shower.

"What's gross about her? She's hot." I say, picking at a hangnail on my finger. Noah grimaces, like he doesn't think she's atractive at all, and takes a large gulp of the possibly-alcoholic blue stuff.

"What-ever, honey," he says, then I think I hear him mumble, "Not even on that team."

"Hmm?"

"Nothing. Just... Nothing." he says, seeming even more uncomfortable. But when a dark, gray cloud floats over to block out the sun, he finally relaxes.

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**Review and I'll update faster. Isn't that motivation enough?**


	4. The Slayer

**I am extremely sorry for the long wait. But as soon as my writer's block cleared and I wrote out the fourth chapter, my laptop decided it would be a good idea to delete every document I ever made. I spent a lot of wasted time trying to get it back. T.T So please don't be so mad at me- be mad at my stupid Windows Vista. Here's hoping this chapter doesn't suck!

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Noah and I become closer and closer as time goes on. I even start telling him the more embarrassing things about me; when he found Jerry, my stuffed emu my mom gave me when I was little, I didn't make up some lie. I didn't say "Oh, my little cousin must have dropped that in my suitcase." I told him flat-out that I still slept with a stuffed animal.

Even more surprisingly, he didn't ridicule me (like anyone else would have) or rip Jerry to shreds, like anyone else would have threatened to do. He just laughed, a _real_ laugh. I can't help but smile when he laughs like that, in that way that he only did around me.

And he told me a few things that no one knew about him- how horrible his parents were being lately, a few other things. When he told me about his best friend from back home, Joey, I could feel a bit of jealousy. I know it's selfish, but I wanted his feelings for me to be the strongest. Either way, we begin to just get closer and closer... But, underneath it all, I can tell that he's keeping some huge secret from me, something... not normal. I can't tell what it is, but I know it's there. I can feel it.

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It's not until Harold arrives that things get even weirder. He was always strange, but I didn't realize how strange until he got a room just above mine and Noah's. I'd hear thumping at night, with random screams of "Gosh!" One night we weren't tired, just annoyed, so Noah and I went up to Harold's room to tell him to knock it off.

Harold doesn't open the door. "Who is it?" he asks. We tell him. He cracks the door, looking between the two of us like we're carrying weapons. "What do you want?" No 'hello'. What happened to being polite?

"Hi, Harold." I say.

"Knock it off with all that damn noise." Noah says, not bothering with introductions either.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Harold says with a nonchalant shrug, "Good bye." He tries to close the door, but Noah puts his foot in the way.

"What are you doing in there?" I ask.

Harold sighs. "Fine. Come in." He lets us in to the perfectly normal room. Unlike when I first came to Noah's room, there are posters and other things all over. It seems like any average room, except for the black box on his bed which is sealed with a combination lock.

"See? I'm not doing anything strange." Noah lingers in the room for awhile before turning to leave, and before I can follow him, Harold pulls me into his room and locks the door. I can feel something inside me sink when Noah leaves, and I sigh.

"Look, Cody, I trust you." Harold says. "Not so much Noah."

"O... Kay?"

He pulls out the piece of wood, sharp at one end. My eyebrows scrunch in confusion. He tells me, "It's a stake!"

"You carry around a wooden stake." I state the obvious.

"Only recently, since I started to study the art of creature slaying."

"_Creature slaying?_ That sounds like something out of a bad summer movie."

"Don't poke fun at me!" he looks both ways suspiciously and pulls me in close. "We humans are not alone. Not on the planet, and not in this resort. The supernatural are afoot!"

I push him away, "You sound like an overly-dramatic Hollywood movie character."

"You really think I sound like a Hollywood movie slayer character? Because I've been practicing that line for a long time. I also have a list of battle cries and catchphrases, just in case they want to make a movie of my epic journey." he sounded very proud of all this.

"Um... Good luck with that, Harold." I back up, slowly, until I'm sure he's not watching me anymore. Then I bolt from the room, back to my room. Once my door is closed, I drop to the floor and start laughing.

"What?" Noah asks, looking up from the book he was reading. I sit next to him and tell him all about 'Harold, the Vampire Slayer.'  
Noah laughs a little, "Wow. That's just pathetic." he looks down to his book again.

Some of his dark hair falls over into his face, making him look so- _You are not going to think that_ I hear in my head, but it's so faint that I don't care anymore. I feel my stomach doing flips. I know what I feel, and what I want, and what I want is Noah... So I push the stray hair out of his face.

I expected him to pull away, look at me like I'm insane, maybe even yell at me. But instead he reaches up and touches my hand, bringing it back down onto the bed. I smile sheepishly. I know my face is bright red, like a traffic light, like a fire truck, like all kinds of other random things.

Noah smiles at me. My hearts pounding even louder. "S-sorry. I just, um... Yeah." _Shut up!_ I yell at myself. Then I remember what Izzy said- _You have to talk about it sooner or later!_ And she's right. As uncomfortable as it makes me, I have to bring up the elephant in the room, because I don't think Noah is going to.

"Do you remember..." I trail off, wishing I hadn't started that line of thought.

"What?" Noah asks.

"Why did you kiss me back on the island?" I blurt out like the flustered idiot I am. His smile drops off of his face and he pulls his hand off of mine. Despite all we talked about- family or friends or video games or whatever else came to mind- this was one subject we steered clear of.

"I was asleep, Cody," he says.

"That's not a good enough answer."

"Well, then what kind of answer do you want?" he was slipping away; being reserved and cynical again. I didn't want that, I wanted him to be open, to treat me as his best friend. So I try to look him in the eyes when I say, "Did you like it?"

"Did you?" he asks sarcastically.

"What if I did?" _Shut up!_ I yell at myself again.

He moves closer to me. I can feel his eyes boring into me, trying to read my emotions. He didn't think I'd say that- he probably expected something stupid and childish. We just sit there and look at each other for a while. I remember what happened with Beth, how wrong I felt. But this, being with Noah, was the total opposite. And that's when I realize I want _Noah_, not Beth or anyone else. I want to make out with my best friend, despite the fact we're both boys. I just don't care anymore. It's torture for him not to hold me, it's torture for him not to kiss me, it's just plain not right that we're just friends.

If this were a movie, I would lean in and kiss him, and everything would be perfect. But of course, this is real life, and real life sucks. We're just an inch or two away, and I can feel that it's going to happen- when the door flies open and I jump up guiltily. Strangely enough, it's Chris.

"We weren't doing anything!" I say immediately (and guiltily)

Chris looks confused, but then smiles wide and says, "I'm just checking up on every room to make sure all the losers are doing alright."

"At midnight?" I ask.

"Yes. At midnight." Chris says.

"Since when do you care about anyone but yourself?" Noah asks in an annoyed voice.

Chris just shrugs and leaves. I can hear him laughing down the hall. "That fucker did that on purpose." Noah mumbled.

"Did what on purpose?" I ask, even though I know what he's talking about.

He studies me for a while, and I can swear I see something flash in those eyes. A chill runs through the air. "Something's not right about you." I didn't mean to say it out loud, but there it was. He stands up and smirks. I'm not sure if the chills down my spine are because he's hot, or because he's scaring the piss out of me. Noah walks past me and out of the room, leaving me, and once again there's that empty feeling.

I fall down onto my bed and groan. It was easier with Gwen- with Gwen, I'd hit on her and she would deny me. With Noah, I have no idea if this is going to go anywhere. The way he hates the sun, the strange feelings he gives me that have nothing to do with my... crush. There, I said it. My crush on Noah.

I sigh, wondering what he's doing right now. Wondering what he's thinking of and how he feels about me. I don't remember when, but soon I've fallen asleep, trying hard to keep myself from dreaming of Noah. But I know I will.

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